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particulars with the preceding portions of their story—which terminated the fates of that beloved but ill-starred race. That too, is a period of the history of Scotland which all its natives still peruse with interest-and the remembrances of which still throw a romantic character over all the scenes which witnessed the exploits of the time.

Next came the long years of civil and ecclesiastical strife-during which great energy of national character was displayed—and valuable principles of mind and of heart were called into exercise, -though accompanied with many disorders and perversities, which can now be looked back on only with regret-and the record of which offers, in one view, one of the most melancholy subjects of perusal that can occupy the minds of the studious. Gradually, however, the fierceness of that time of strife was abated—and it is peculiarly worthy of notice, that amidst all the sternness of the minds of men during that portion of our history, there is evidence, especially in the popular songs and ballads of the time that the native and kindliest feelings of the human heart, were so far from being in utter abeyance, that they scarcely seem to have existed among any people, during any portion of their story, in a more genial or pleasing state. It is generally understood, that it was chiefly from the time when the two kingdoms were united about the beginning of the last century—and when civil and ecclesiastical strife were at least beginning to abate-that this healthy reaction in the public mind of the country took place---and assuredly, if history records chiefly the public transactions of nations---and if the preceding portion of our history cannot be perused without a suspicion being at least occasionally awakened, that no more miserable or excited time can be fixed on, during the whole known history of mankind---there is equal evidence---if it be true that the popular songs of a country are the best records and evidences of its domestic and private feelings and habits, that no other nation can produce a finer testimony to that love of nature---or that romantic and purifying indulgence of the warmest feelings of the heart, which in all circumstances are among the best possessions by which a people can be enriched. The progress of this abatement of civil and religious strife still continued throughout the whole of the latter part of the century

of which we are speaking, and during the earlier years of that which is now advancing—and the religious condition of Scotland during the last fifty years has often been referred to as one of the most pleasing topics on which the attention of the student of human nature-and of social and ecclesiastical institutions can be fixed.

We are now apparently arrived at the commencement of the fourth age in this series of changes-for a new spirit has lately begun to manifest itself, in many respects subversive of that which has hitherto prevailed---and no human sagacity can foretell to what ultimate changes this movement, in things secular and ecclesiastical, may lead, or how long the state of trouble and transition may continue, which is to be followed by a new and different order of things. Looking, indeed, at the vigour and the diffusion of the spirit which has gradually been awakened-at its connec tion with changes which are threatened in the entire fabric of society, and in all the opinions and ancient institutions of men--and at the spirit of delusion which seems to have, to a certain extent, gained the mastery even over those whose minds are still attached to the customs of their forefathers-but who seem to be pursuing methods which, to minds differently gifted, appear only to menace the existence of all that has hitherto been revered-it is impossible not to entertain the most serious apprehensions, both as to the form which the coming contention may assume-the length of time during which its ravages may be continued-and the utter subversion of all that we have been accustomed to venerate, in which it may, if not prevented by Divine Providence, be destined to terminate. But human sagacity sees at any time, and even in its clearest moods, but a very little way before it---and amidst all the darkness and uncertainty of the prospect before us, have, therefore, only, in the first place, to wish for my country, that whatever change may come, she may continue to be as remarkable for the excellence and the true liberality of her institutions as she has been during a great portion of the years that have now elapsed---for myself, that having finished my course in a manner not discreditable to the place which I occupy, and to the functions given me to fulfil, I may sleep at last beneath the shadow of those aged trees, whose voices have so often spoken to my

nightly slumbers during my day of life---and for those quiet and lovely vallies, on which my eye has so often gazed with delight--that after this period of uncertainty and of fear has passed, they may yet be peopled by a contented and happy race, who shall faithfully perform their humble duties---and who, as one of the best of all their blessings, shall know nothing of the anxieties and heartburnings which belong to a time of change.

GOOD NIGHT.

THE imagination of man, which is the source to him of so many magnificent and pleasing impressions—is also at all times ready to suggest very unreasonable fancies-and to fill him with regrets which, if he were acquainted with all his best interests, he could not possibly indulge.

We thus sometimes fancy, when under the pressure of severe agony, that by quitting existence, we shall free ourselves from our trouble, without reflecting that there can be no such release, when the sufferer himself perishes by the very act which he supposed was to give him the feeling of deliverance from his cares. And, in the same manner-or by a similar delusion of fancy, we suppose that we shall have reason to regret the enjoyment of many blessings, when our powers of perception and of enjoyment themselves have ceased-and when all that is to come-so far as this earth and its changes are concerned, must to us be as the things that happened before we knew what it was to look upon the goodly creation of God.

It is in this manner that, looking forward to the great things that are yet to happen among men-and to the greater revolutions which the entire kingdom of God has to undergo, we sometimes abandon ourselves to melancholy thoughts respecting the meanness of a destiny which in a very short time must consign us to per petual ignorance of all that is yet to come forth. But in what condition would we wish to live, if our desire were to be gratifiedor what is the change we would consent to undergo, that our expectation might be fulfilled? Would we desire to continue throughout all coming time precisely as we are at the present moment—and while every thing else in nature and in life is changing around us, would it be any gift to be desired, that we only should survive with no subjection to the universal law which is carrying all other forms of existence into different and pro

gressive conditions? Or would we consent to continue our earthly progress, throughout an unlimited series of years, and to endure all the misery of seeing every thing else becoming successively young around us, while the horrors of an increasing old age was destined for us only of all that have a place in being? Or, lastly, do we regret that change should be the universal law of life-and that the existence of every thing that has a place in nature should be so fugitive and uncertain-and can we then forget that if this fixed state were granted to any condition of being-or to all the things that do appear, there could be nothing future to awaken our regrets---and that the desire itself of seeing what is to come forth could not, by the very supposition, have a place in our hearts?

The existence, in short, of any such regrets in the human mind, is only a proof, that man has little acquaintance with the true condition of his being---that he fancies himself still to exist to feel the loss of sights and enjoyments, which to him must then be as if they were not---and that what he chiefly wants, in order to secure his peace and satisfaction, is not any wider or more permanent view of the destiny of the universe---but a heart submissive to the ordinations of Providence, and equally prepared to fulfil the task which life may present to him---and to obey the same high and all-wise mandate, when it shall signify to him that his services are no more wanted---and that others are to come forth to enjoy the spectacle on which his eyes have already looked, and to fulfil the duties which their day of existence may prescribe to them—to be succeeded in their turns, by still new races, who are for ever to maintain the undecaying youth of nature, and to carry forward to their consummation the inscrutable but beneficent and infinitely wise designs of the Supreme Mind.

There can, in a word, be no real loss to any of the creatures of God in submitting to the changes which his perfect wisdom and goodness have ordained for them---and I know not that there are any thoughts more fitted, next to this reliance on the unerring wisdom and fatherly goodness of Providence, to reconcile us, even to the most humbling and melancholy prospect, which the short-lived tenure of our earthly being presents to us, than those which are contained in the following quotation---and which seems to me so just in conception---and so magnificent in language, and at the same time so much in unison with some of the

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